MAKING SENSE OF AGRICULTURAL TRADE POLICY REFORM

Proposals for agricultural trade reform put forward by the main protagonists remain far apart, with little sign of convergence. In an attempt to progress the negotiations towards a successful outcome, the chairman of the WTO Committee on Agriculture has proposed a compromise. The alternative proposals by the United States, the European Union and the WTO are analysed with the Agricultural Trade Policy Simulation Model, a static, multi-commodity, multi-region, partial equilibrium trade model. The estimated annual global welfare gains are $26 billion, $12 billion and $17 billion respectively. Least developed countries, as a group, gain from the US proposal but are made worse off under the WTO and EU proposals. Furthermore, in the best case many individual countries experience welfare losses. However, all countries enjoy increased export revenues and tariff revenues hold up quite well under the two less stringent proposals.